bin Laden's (Unabridged) Message to America:
"the real loser is ... you"
CNN published a transcript of Osama bin-Laden's videotaped message to the American people last week, which was universally carried by the mainstream media.
Al Jazeera ran what they claimed was a "full English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech ... which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited."
If you compare and contrast the two transcripts, you'll notice that the translations are similar, yet stylistically different, with some notable differences.
In the CNN version, the fourth paragraph from the end goes like this:
Then, what happened was that he [George H W Bush] was impressed by the monarchies and the military regimes, and he was jealous of them staying in power for tens of years, embezzling the public money without any accountability. And he moved the tyranny and suppression of freedom to his own country, and they called it the Patriot Act, under the disguise of fighting terrorism. And Bush, the father, found it good to install his children as governors and leaders.
What follows is the text that should follow, and in fact does in the Al Jazeera version, but which is completely missing from the CNN transcript:
So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act, under the pretence of fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.
All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.
This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers, as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.
All Praise is due to Allah.
So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah.
That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against the administration in the White House or that the administration has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one scrutinises the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole factor in achieving those spectacular gains.
Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.
And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.
And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. [When they pointed out that] for example, al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America, in the incident and its aftermath, lost - according to the lowest estimate - more than $500 billion.
Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.
As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.
And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the mujahidin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan - with Allah's permission.
It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced. And it all shows that the real loser is ... you.
It is the American people and their economy.
Why did CNN feel it was necessary to omit this portion of bin-Laden's message? There was a time not long ago when the answer would have simply been, "We ran out of space." But there is plenty of space on the CNN website to publish the full transcript. So why was it edited?
Osama bin Laden's point that the real loser in all of this is the American people and the US economy raises another question: how much has the invasion and occupation of Iraq cost the United States? For starters:
- Over 1,000 US servicemen and women killed.
- Over 7,000 US servicemen and women wounded.
- At least 150 contractors and 40 journalists killed.
- A shrinking "coalition," from 30 countries to 22, with only a few providing troops.
- Increased recruitment for al-Qaeda.
- An expanding Iraqi resistance movement.
- Lower US credibility with allies and trading partners.
- Lower troop morale.
- Loss of first responders.
- $150 billion billed so far, with billions more in the coming months, which promises to increase trade deficits and inflation.
- Skyrocketing oil prices, which reached their highest price in 20 years.
- Increased demand for food stamps by military families.
And then there is the cost to Iraq ... many thousands more killed, escalating rates of murder, rape and kidnapping, rising unemployment .... Read more
here.
Are Bush supporters stupid? To suggest so is simplistic, insulting and ultimately counterproductive.
